Brief summary of how this caucus came to be; spotlight session in Vancouver kicked it off, David ran with it. First went to LMD about being a section; LMD was not interested. Then realized a caucus would be a good fit, so worked with Kate Arnold to get the proposal put together. In March 2015 a petition was put up; 109 signatures allowed it to be presented to the Board in May, when it was accepted.

$12 additional fee to belong to the caucus

Authorized for a two-year period; will need to be revisited in late 2016.

Only one officer, the convener. David will serve for first two years.

Small allotment to the caucus

Website, listserv, can partner with divisions for conference sessions

Can do webinars, conference calls, etc.

Annual report required

Dan Trefethen shared some history of other units of a manner of practice: started as a caucus and became a division (Solo), and the Baseball Caucus – an interest group but no baseball librarians, as an example of a very active and engaged group. No interest in being a division; they are perfect as a caucus. We have options as the caucus develops.

Status

Listserv: sla-embedded@sla.lyris.net. Discussion of whether the list should be open or closed. Decision is that, unless/until it’s abused, the listserv will be open.

Website pending after conference; expected to be embedded.sla.org. Once it’s assigned, volunteers will be needed to populate it.

Membership option to be added to online registration within the week; as soon as it’s up, we all need to join it! Go to the SLA website, your account, and you can add the caucus at that time. Everyone who signed the petition should get an email notifying us when the registration option is open.

Thoughts on organization. Had a lot of volunteers on the petition who want to help! Gratifying to see.

Communications team

Listserv

Website

Social Media

Program planning team

Kick off with a webinar intro to the caucus (similar to this meeting’s info)

Can do short webinars (20-30 minutes) to share what we’re doing, something that’s an issue currently being wrestled with, success stories, etc.

We do not have a programming slot at annual conference; can have the caucus meeting but that’s it. No fundraising.

Interests & Initiatives

Round-the-room table discussions (intros & explanations)

We’re the first info professional association acknowledged embedded librarian unit!

What should the caucus do? What should be our top learning and thought leadership priorities? We have the opportunity to really be thought leaders, not just for SLA but for ACRL, ERL, other associations & library groups. Keep in mind other avenues we can use to further enhance our field with our knowledge (articles, other publications, talks, etc.).